In 2004, the Columbus Dispatch reported just days
before the Bush/Kerry presidential election that two local Al-Qaeda terrorists,
Iyman Faris and Nuradin Abdi, were still registered to vote in the state of
Ohio.

Following that revelation, Democrats and moonbats nationwide pointed to this as
conclusive proof that then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican,
and his office were hopelessly corrupt and trying to rig the election for
George W. Bush.

Will the fact that the present Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, is a
Democrat now temper their outrage?

And will the fact that Christopher Paul has yet to be sentenced mean that he
may still legally get to pull the lever (or more accurately, submit his
absentee ballot) for his man, Barack Obama, for President. Paul might also have
a chance to help out his lady, Mary Jo Kilroy, get to Congress in the Ohio 15th – one of the
few competitive congressional races in the country.

A quick check with the Franklin County Board of Elections
finds that Paul is still registered
to vote. His registration also appears on a search of the
Ohio Secretary of State website.

I spoke with Ben Piscitelli at the Franklin County Board of
Elections and asked about the process of removing felons from the voter roles.
Piscitelli responded:

In such instances, a court will
notify us of a felony conviction about one month after sentencing. We will
remove the name of the voter in question immediately thereafter.

But no sentencing date has been announced yet for
Christopher Paul, and because of the time it takes to compile the sentencing
report it is unlikely that such will occur before the November 4th election.
Unless the court suddenly sentences Paul in the next few weeks, it appears he
will be legally eligible to vote in the upcoming election by absentee ballot
(whether he will, of course, is unknown).

As noted above, the problem of having some of our local Al-Qaeda terrorists on
the voting rolls is nothing new for the State of Ohio. In late October 2004, Jon Craig of the
Dispatch reported:

A dirty tale of duplications, even
terrorists, on voter lists

Ohio’s
voter-registration rolls are dirty, containing more than 122,000 apparent
duplicates as well as the names of people who moved out of state in the 1990s,
a local murder victim and even a pair of accused terrorists.

Among supposedly eligible voters in FranklinCounty are suspected terrorists
arrested for alleged plots to blow up the BrooklynBridge
and a local shopping mall. As an imprisoned felon, one is ineligible to vote.
The other, from Somalia,
is not a U.S.
citizen and thus broke state and federal laws when he registered in 1999,
officials said. . .

“That’s really disturbing,” said OhioStateUniversity
law professor Terri Enns. “There certainly are potential problems, but there
are a lot of (Election Day) safeguards to keep it from swaying the election.”

Accused terrorists Nuradin Abdi, 32, and Iyman Faris, 35, are registered to
vote in Ohio.
An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in June said Somali immigrant
Abdi and admitted al-Qaida member Faris plotted with a third Columbus man to attack a mall.

Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said Abdi’s false
registration may violate state and federal law. In fact, the application he
signed — swearing he is a U.S.
citizen — notes that election falsification is punishable by up to six months
in prison, a fine of $1,000 or both.

Faris, a Columbus
truck driver, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting that he scouted the
BrooklynBridge in New York and other potential targets for
al-Qaida as recently as March 2003. As an incarcerated felon, he will not be
allowed to vote. Faris, from Kashmir, became a
naturalized citizen in 1999. (“Long Gone But Still Registered”, Columbus
Dispatch, October 24,
2004)

Faris and Abdi were not eligible to vote in the 2004
election because Faris had already been sentenced (though was still on the
rolls); and even though Abdi had only been indicted at that time, he had
falsely claimed to be a US
citizen when he registered and thus was ineligible (though he too was on the
voter rolls).

But in Christopher Paul’s case, he’s a natural born US
citizen; and even though he has admitted his role in the local Al-Qaeda cell
(of which only three members have been charged and at least 10 others are known to have been involved) and pled guilty,
since he hasn’t been sentenced he may not lose his voting rights until after
the election.

Some of our local Islamic leaders will have no problem with Christopher Paul
voting since they have publicly declared him innocent even after his guilty plea.
But since Democrats are desperate for every vote in the State of Ohio, and Mary
Jo Kilroy lost by just over 1,000 votes in 2006, how quickly do you think that
Secretary Brunner and fellow Ohio Democrats will move to address this issue? In
the absence of sentencing by the court he may be legally eligible to vote in
the upcoming election.

Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to Frontpagemag.com and an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforcement and the military.

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